A Premise Salesman with Some Things on His Mind

Update

Yesterday was a good day and I argued that the best thing to do after a good day is to forget about it. Get out and work with extra enthusiasm. That’s what I did today. The results?

Well, not so bad. About half as good as yesterday, but half as good as yesterday is still much better than what had been an average day for the last several weeks. Plus I expect some of today’s efforts might pay off with a strong finish tomorrow. So the strategy seems to have paid off!

I started the morning with a quick barrage of calls. There was a long list of stragglers that needed to be pushed. Now is the time to get off the fence. You’re either in or your out. (Most were out.) It was a good move to get the calls out of the way. The heart of the day was set up with appointments. And that paid off. Got a great sales and met some interesting people.

In fact I’ve decided that Lindstrom, MN, might not be a bad place to end up. The old folks are quirky in a good way. I broke my 70 Rule today, in fact, and really don’t regret it.

I met an old well digger. I had been chasing him for two weeks and a few days ago he finally agreed to meet with me. We met at a little restaurant in Center City, MN, just down the road from Lindstrom. It is the kind of place where daily specials include a hamburger and a malt for $3.95 or a steak plate for $7.95. Coffee is still less than a $1 a cup…unfortunately at only $1 a cup it is still overpriced. Not so good. The place had some charm, though, even with glaring flourescent lighting.

The old well digger was an interesting guy. It took him a while to warm up. He didn’t hide his awkwardness. He just stared at me, completely unresponsive. I don’t think he was listening at all. He was watching. He was looking for signs. He was assessing me.

Finally one of his buddies came over and offered his help: “Hey, Andy. How are you? Don’t buy any of that. It doesn’t do a lick of good.”

Believe it or not, I was grateful for the interruption. The well digger wasn’t responding. He was just sitting. Staring. With the other old guy in the conversation, I had something almost like a dialogue to explore. Rather than talk to the well digger, I talked to his friend instead. Eventually the well digger’s friend went back to the coffee counter to rejoin his friends and I was alone with well digger.

The well digger opened up. He explained that he had drilled thousands of wells in the are and was essentially retired. He wasn’t renewing his licenses and leaving most of his business to his son, a man he said had never drilled a well. (He didn’t seem overly proud of his son. His son, it turned out, is a client of mine.) I quickly begin to wonder why this guy agreed to meet with me. Perhaps he likes to stare at a stranger while he sips bad coffee. I have no idea. The well digger started to ramble and restated the few facts he had over and over. (He drilled thousands of wells…) But I liked him. He seemed purely genuine and sincere. He agreed to meet with me because I asked him to meet with me. It was that simple. No expectations beyond that. So I met a nice well digger, a man who had drilled thousands of wells, and there is nothing bad about that.